Dog Training Tips: Stuffing a Hollow Dog Chew Toy

Best Dog Training Tips and Ideas

Learn How to Stuff or Fill a Hollow Dog Chew Toy of How to Fill a Kong

Filling a Kong or Rubber Dog Toy

I love using rubber hollow chew toys like the Kong to keep Dexter The Dog busy and occupied. I recommend this to virtually all my dog training clients. Why? Well, for starters dogs love to chew! Dogs get bored easily. I think using interactive dog treat toys is a great way for canine enrichment.

What I don’t like are fat dogs. So, I tend to find ways to stuff The Original Kong and other stuffable dog toys like the Rita ball or Kong Quest Bone (large) with Dexter’s food calories. You probably know by now that I home-cook for Dexter, so this makes Kong stuffing incredibly easy, since all of his food is soft and wet. For those dogs who eat a high-quality canned dog food, this would work well too. For my dry dog food friends, I recommend substituting canned food for some of the dry kibbles.

Healthy Kong Recipes

Getting your dog used to eating out of a Kong, Kong Quest Bone, Rita ball or Jed sometimes takes a little trial and error. What I typically do is take something wet like canned dog food or organic almond butter and smudge it on the outside of the toy. You want to make it easy enough on your dog to want to interact with the treat toy. This may take a few days. You are looking for your dog to anticipate the chew toy and eagerly lick away. Once this happens, I smudge some organic almond butter inside the opening so he has to start licking inside the toy for his reward.

The other thing I do in conjunction with the above tip is to place a very high-value dog treat just under the toy, so all your dog has to do is move the toy with his nose to collect the treat. As your dog advances and moves the toy quicker and quicker, you can start to place the treat inside the toy so he has to knock it around to get it out.

Keeping a dog busy

Once your dog is readily interacting with his Kong, Kong Quest Bone or Rita ball with food in it or on it, it’s time to raise the bar a bit more. If you are home cooking or using high-quality canned dog food, just place a couple of spoonfuls inside your dog’s toy. Then hand over to your dog to figure out this new challenge.

If you are using dry kibbles, place about 1/4 cup of kibbles in a bowl and add about 2 spoonfuls of canned dog food. Stir and mix together so that the dry kibbles are coated with the canned dog food. Now place that mixture inside the toy and give to your dog to enjoy.

Once this step is mastered, it’s time to raise the bar once again. Double your mixture and place 1/2 the mixture once again inside your dog’s toy. But this time, place the toy in the freezer! Once frozen, remove and stuff the remaining mixture on top of the frozen mixture and present to your dog. Your dog will be able to enjoy the unfrozen treat as the bottom half slowly starts to thaw. The frozen mixture will be quite challenging to master.

Once mastered, fill the dog toy and freeze the entire toy! This should keep your dog busy from anywhere between 10 minutes to 35 minutes! Now you can do some other things while your dog is happily chewing away.

I personally enjoy making new Kong, Kong Quest Bone or Rita ball stuffed chews with different ingredients. This keeps your dog interested so it doesn’t become the same old thing over and over again. Have fun and I’m sure your dog will thank you for it!

Tip-If your dog leaves the toy and is not interested, it typically means the food inside is not valuable enough, or it is too challenging. Increase the value, decrease the difficulty.FYI-most of these dog toys are dishwasher safe (top shelf). But I prefer to use cool water and a baby bottle scrubber to clean.

Does your dog enjoy filled dog treat toys? Tell me in the comments.

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